NBR: Would you eat squirrel?

Maebb

DH and I live in a suburban part of town about 20 minutes from Atlanta, so we're not exactly in the country, but we have a problem with squirrels. We have 6 pecan trees, and they eat all of our pecans and also chew through the spray foam insulation and get into our attic.

DH has this idea that he will shoot and kill the squirrels with an air gun, and then we can eat them. He says something needs to be done about them, but killing them and not eating them would be cruel and wasteful, so it's a win-win!

I did try rat when we lived in Thailand (clean rats from a rice field), and it wasn't bad, but I'm just grossed out by the idea of eating squirrel. Then again, I've eaten rabbit, and that's not gross to me. WDYT?

Josie400

I wouldn't knowingly eat squirrel, but probably wouldn't notice if no one told me what I was eating.

Edvent

I ate squirrel in high school, my BFF was a self proclaimed redneck and her family was big into hunting. I don't remember well (it was in a stew), but it was fine. Not sure if I'd be able to shoot, process, and eat them... but if it was cooked for me I'd give it a whirl!

Maebb

Edvent said:

I ate squirrel in high school, my BFF was a self proclaimed redneck and her family was big into hunting. I don't remember well (it was in a stew), but it was fine. Not sure if I'd be able to shoot, process, and eat them... but if it was cooked for me I'd give it a whirl!

DH said he would cook, clean, and pull it off the bone for me. That way I can pretend it's chicken. I'm still undecided about whether I want to eat it.

holls2212

I have eaten it and it really just tasted like chicken kind of ( not as much meat.) My family - they hunt and that's how we grew up. My grandfather called it "tree chicken." Hahaha

southernyankeegirl

Eh... I have eaten all kinda of 'weird' meat while living in China, but I don't know if I'd eat a squirrel from my yard. Just kind of creeps me a bit for some reason. No problem eating deer that have been killed while hunting, so not sure why I draw the line at squirrels.

Funny story... I used to eat a ton of "street meat" in China where it was always a guess what you were choosing. I joked to a Chinese friend that I had probably eaten dog without knowing it, and she seemed horrified and said, "No! No!" And I worried I had offended her until she continued, "Dog is far too expensive for street meat. Plus it is a warm food - wrong time of year. But you've probably eaten cat and rat." Gee, thanks for clarifying?

becks2012

Heh, I can't believe I am about to tell this story....

OK, so I grew up on a farm in Southern Indiana. We weren't even in one of the tiny little towns it was just the middle of nowhere. I also had a lot of cousins ranging in age from 20 to 2. Each summer, all of the cousins would come to stay for two weeks at the same time. Anyway, my uncles liked to hunt, so they decided that not only did anyone over the age of six need gun safety lessons, they needed target practice with a 22.

So my oldest cousin would drive, and we would load up in the back of a pick-up and drive to a nearby bridge over a small creek and hook a RC airplane to the end of a fishing pole line. The oldest cousin would drive the plane, and whoever shot the plane down first got to pick what was for dinner the next day... Several squirrels were casualties in the game, and you guessed it, my uncles found out about it. Uncle Steve came with us once and squirrel made the menu the next evening. There isn't much meat on a squirrel, and he made us clean one apiece. Even battered up and fried, I didn't think they tasted very good.

honeybeee3

SRose1005

Squirrels are jerks. Eat them all.

LaBellaVida

Heck no! Squirrels are so cute!

BookitBoo

It's common in the south to eat squirrel. I've never eaten squirrel, personally, but my nana loved squirrel brains (yuck).

SRose1005

The campus of the college I went to was overrun with squirrels. If you were eating outside they would consistently try to steal your food and they were super annoying. I hate them! Eat them all!!

melmarie4

I'm a picky eater, so I would never eat squirrel. Plus they're kinda cute, super annoying, but cute. If your husband is set on you eating them, I would wait till after your pregnancy just to be on the safe side.

Lanatir

So hooray knowing people from the south...  A friend's uncle died from eating bad squirrel...

Our neighbors have eaten squirrel plenty of times with no problem.  The husband apparently lied to his wife and told her the first time that it was a rabbit (and had skinned and cut the tail and head off first) so the wife prepared stew with it.  Apparently the way the wife makes it, it's chewier than rabbit, but otherwise not that different.

I haven't tried it, but if someone made something with it in it, I'd probably try it.  Why not?  haha.

longcat07

i'm a special snowflake.  FTR, yes i would eat squirrel...but i'll do you one further.  i HAVE eaten squirrel, on several occasions.  SO had a very modest upbringing (his family wasn't quite DIRT poor, but they were pretty poor), so they ate a lot of wild game just because the number of geese they could get (or the amount of meat from a deer, or whatever) for the price of a hunting license beat the pants off relying on the grocery store for all their meat.  (they only ever hunted within quota...no poaching.)  squirrel and rabbit were regulars on their dinner table, so SO kind of developed a taste for it.  SO prefers squirrel to rabbit because he says it's milder.  i don't know, they taste pretty similar to me.  neither is really all that far off from chicken.  kind of a weird cross between chicken and pork.  it's not my favorite, but it's not bad.

funny story.  we have semi-roadkill in our freezer right now.  err, partial roadkill, not something that was killed by a semi.  ha.  anyway, one day last spring, SO got let out of work early, so i was headed to the train station to pick him up when i noticed a rabbit laying near the curb on a side street on my way by.  it was definitely still alive...its front end was up, but its back end was laying curled behind it.  on the way back with SO, it was still there (in fact, it was dragging itself by its front paws...broken back).  i felt so terrible for it, i made SO go back after we got home with a good sharp knife to put the poor thing out of its misery.  we had DS with us and i didn't want him watching dad slit a rabbit's throat, at his age.  i did NOT expect SO to show up back home with the damn thing in the trunk.  so he skinned it, gutted it, cut out the bad meat around the middle where the injury was, and brought it in and cleaned it really well, then bagged it up and put it in the freezer.  there are a couple squirrels his dad gave us in there too.  maybe i should do something with them.

Trek3

I think that squirrel meat itself is probably fine, although I am really not adventurous and wouldn't eat it myself.

However in addition to the issues mentioned by pps, I think the fact that they are eating spray foam would mean that they are full of chemicals and not exactly clean meat.

Maybe research pets that like to eat/chase squirrel?

Maebb

Hawkward said:

Sorry, lurking, but your H doesn't want you eating sushi or medium rare steak, but he's totes cool with squirrel?

I'd be way more concern with the odds of catching tularemia, salmonella, or leptospirosis (among other things) from cleaning/eating squirrel than I would be from food-borne illnesses from properly prepared sushi or steak. 

@Hawkward, yeah, I brought that up to him. He said they're clean because they mostly hang out in our pecan trees all day and eat the pecans, but I do wonder about the spray foam.

Idk whether he knows how to properly clean squirrel. He has mostly cleaned fish, and I think he has cleaned deer. He said that a coworker wants to come over and cook it on his green egg, so maybe I'll just hope that he eats all the squirrel, and then DH will be satisfied that it's not being wasted.

MLC1990

Squirrel Gravy is very popular back home. :-D

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iheartichi

I think if I didn't know I'd probably eat it.

Don't know how your neighbors are, just check with DNR about small game season in case you have tattlers. I have questionable neighbors on one side that would tell on us, and then our neighbors across the street (82 yr olds) drink cocktails and shoot squirrels with BB guns.

longcat07

to be fair, the squirrels are very likely not EATING the spray foam (especially not with pecans all over the yard, lol), just chewing on it to get through it.  they chew on all kinds of shit that they don't eat (such as the hulls and shells of any kind of nut, even wood siding).  also, if they've made it through your insulation into your attic, don't be surprised to find some pecan shells up there.

they ARE a pain in the ass to prepare, being so small with all those bones.  i usually wind up doing stew and then making SO debone the damn thing.

ETA: all this aside, if you're not comfortable eating it, don't.

Stargirlb

Not a fan of eating rodents, but in general I will try anything once

HStrawberry

My MIL had a rule that if you kill it, you eat it (with only boys in the country it was a good rule). My husband killed one with a sling shot as a kid and they ate it. He said it was good but it took so long to skin it it wasn't worth the effort since there was such little meat.

honeybeee3

The only way I would eat squirrel is if I was stranded in the woods, starving and had no other choice- like if I was crazy enough to be on Naked and Afraid.

I also might eat it if someone bribed me with money, but it depends on how much.

Otherwise no thanks!

motherboy

No. What if it had parasitic worms or something? With that lovely thought, good night.

GirlWithAnchors

I would. If we can eat cows, chicken, fish, goat, rabbit why not? I'd ask for it to just be given to me first and not tell me until my second or third plate. Just cause they're pretty cute! Lol

UberBiz

FI is a country boy, born and raised in the woods. We now live in town and he hates it; he's talked about shooting the squirrels and the woodchucks with his air pistol, but he hasn't. Yet. If he ever did, you can bet your bottom dollar we'd be eating it.

tkr7c9

Squirrel is decent if cooked in a vegetable stew..... but they do have a ton of tiny little bones. I am not good at cooking it (honestly I don't even try), but my DH grew up eating it all the time and so he cooks it.

Trek3

Maybe you could sell them by the side of the road (what movie is that from - Waterboy?)

infinity092813

Hahaha. . .thanks for making my morning OP.

I would NOT eat a squirrel even though they are everywhere and can be super annoying.  I mean, if it was the last thing on earth or I was on some reality TV show like Survivor or Naked & Afraid, I would consider it but I wouldn't eat them when I there are other proteins available.

nah82

I would eat it if it was a necessity like I was dirt poor and starving.  This case wouldn't be a necessity to me.  I have had rabbit (one of our neighbors used to run a "rabbitry") and it was delicious.

TXUltraRunner

i have had squirrel. I've known Cajuns who eat them regularly. It was good in a stew and in some gumbo.

lavet22

I've eaten a variety of meats, including rabbit, but I say no to squirrel.  And for what it's worth, I live in Kentucky, in the country, and I still refuse.  LOL

Maebb

Sorry, Happy Monkey. I won't tag you since you probably don't want to come back to this thread, but I wasn't trying to gross anyone out!

Tsuga76

Maebb said:

Hawkward said:

Sorry, lurking, but your H doesn't want you eating sushi or medium rare steak, but he's totes cool with squirrel?

I'd be way more concern with the odds of catching tularemia, salmonella, or leptospirosis (among other things) from cleaning/eating squirrel than I would be from food-borne illnesses from properly prepared sushi or steak. 

@Hawkward, yeah, I brought that up to him. He said they're clean because they mostly hang out in our pecan trees all day and eat the pecans, but I do wonder about the spray foam.

Idk whether he knows how to properly clean squirrel. He has mostly cleaned fish, and I think he has cleaned deer. He said that a coworker wants to come over and cook it on his green egg, so maybe I'll just hope that he eats all the squirrel, and then DH will be satisfied that it's not being wasted.

Personally I'm generally more comfortable eating something caught in the wild than something raised in a factory farm, though no one in my immediate family are hunters. For one, that squirrel no doubt had a better life than the chicken or pig you buy at the grocery store and two, lived in far more sanitary conditions so it's probably actually safer from diseases. If your husband doesn't know what he's doing in cleaning it that could be a problem, but mammal anatomy is all pretty similar. Also the squirrels are probably tearing apart your insulation for their nests, not eating it. The chemical argument though is valid and if your neighbors are really into spraying their yards with all manner of toxic stuff may be better to avoid.

Alygohome

TRexsMum said:

I would eat any land animal. Heck, I'd eat human if it was necessary.

Me too lol

12chachacha

I would eat anything. I would eat squirrel that were raised on a squirrel farm and fed a healthy and known diet. I would not eat squirrels that had eaten spray foam insulation. I wouldn't eat any urban animal who could have gotten into garbage, hazardous materials, diseases, etc.

jensavicci

Eat squirrel?

AggieMom0809

It's not that crazy of an idea. I'm just not a fan of most meat so wouldn't willingly eat it. DH and his buddies growing up would go out and shoot some to snack on (once cooked). I guess they had nothing better to do out in the middle of no where. Now he says it's just not worth the effort, but would still eat if it he was hungry. 

luckylady18

I am vegetarian so no, I wouldn't eat it.

However, I do have more respect for people who are willing to kill, clean and prepare their own meat rather than support factory farming.

That being said, I would be wary about the insulation thing, because you don't *really* know that they aren't eating it, and also you don't know if they are diseased in any way or not. I just don't really think that pregnancy is a time you want to be experimenting with this. Just sounds a little risky to me.